ON SPORTS MEDIA.

A New Knight? Writer Can Only Hope

March 23, 2001|BY ED SHERMAN.

Poor Randy Rosetta. He has to feel like a guy who gets switched from taking care of the lambs in the children's zoo to brushing the teeth of the lions.

Life had been relatively placid for Rosetta, the Texas Tech basketball writer for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal for four years. Given the prominence of basketball in West Texas (close to zero) he had mostly a low-profile beat.

Not anymore. When Bob Knight rolls into town Friday, Rosetta will have one of the biggest--and most perilous--assignments in sports.

"When his name first came up, my first thought was, `Well, life is going to be quite a bit different,'" Rosetta said. "[Former coach] James Dickey was as media friendly as a coach can be. Not to make an indictment against Knight, but it obviously won't be the same."

Rosetta is trying to go into this with an open mind. For his part, Knight also wants a better relationship with the media.

He recently told ESPN's Dick Vitale that his biggest regret at Indiana is the way he "treated the media in a few situations." A few?

"From Day One, he wants to start from scratch with the media," Vitale said.

Vitale thinks Knight can reform, but look for Las Vegas to put the over-under on the first media explosion on the third game. Knight's MO has been to bully and intimidate, and the press is bracing for the storm.

Rosetta already is upset with talk that Knight will be able to manipulate the local media, much as he did with certain factions in Bloomington.

"It's irritating to hear that on my end," Rosetta said. "I'm going to ask him the same questions I asked of James Dickey. I hope and expect to be treated with respect from Knight."

Knight should take a lesson from one of his former players, Quinn Buckner. He quickly alienated the local media when he became coach of the Dallas Mavericks, and it helped hasten his demise.

"It's going to be tougher for Knight here," said Dave Smith, executive sports editor of the Dallas Morning News. "It's not going to be Indiana. He controlled the media there. We've dealt with as bad as him. Jerry Jones. Mark Cuban. We've had our characters."

Knight's arrival means Smith now has to pay more attention to Texas Tech. He's thinking about basing a full-time staffer in Lubbock.

Texas Tech sports information director Chris Cook expects the usual crew of from 20 to 30 media people per game probably will double. The national media will discover Lubbock too.

Knight won't get the media spotlight he encountered in basketball-crazy Indiana. However, he hardly will be alone in the isolation of West Texas. With a circulation of 60,000, the Avalanche-Journal is the biggest paper for 200 miles.

"If he struggles, people are going to forget about him," said Greg Elkin, Knight's former PR man at Indiana, who now works for the Mavericks.

Elkin then caught himself. "Naw, I can't see that happening."

Knight would be at center stage if he went to coach in Tibet. How he handles the Texas media will be one of the more intriguing parts of this story.

"I'm curious," Smith said. "I don't know."

It is hard to conceive Knight will have a rosy marriage with the media. Rosetta hasn't considered how he will handle a situation if Knight does go off on him, but he cautions that "my temper is not the greatest. I won't be confrontational, but I will tell him I prefer to be treated in a certain way."

Rosetta seems to be up to the task. But he might want to pack a helmet just in case.

Good move: Give credit to WSCR-AM 670 for reversing its stand on Illinois. Assuming the Illini win Friday, they again will have a conflict with the Blackhawks on Sunday afternoon; the Hawks' contract gets preference on the station.

However, instead of moving the game to Aurora-based WAUR-AM 930, as it did last week, it will be heard on the more powerful, WXRT-FM 93.1.

"[A quarterfinal] game doesn't happen very often," said WSCR General Manager Harvey Wells. "It's the right thing to do."

The wrap-up: ABC will televise the World Track and Field Championships from Edmonton in August. . . . Rapper Ice Cube takes viewers through a day in the life of Shaquille O'Neal during NBC's coverage of the NBA on Sunday. . . . New Bears radio announcer Jeff Joniak will be the guest on CLTV's "Sports Page" at 9 p.m. Friday.